Yeah, and having baby-faced Ed Sheeran singing the most beautiful song in the world there was a little bit of overkill, I felt.

I mean, I don't feel the need to harass Ed Sheeran to the point he deletes his twitter about it. But it was overkill just to make the point that random soldiers are not really villains, even if they fight for the bad guys.

But really I think the Hound walked away with this one. In a cast full of people who are really good at conveying a lot of emotion while showing very little, he may be the best.

The Hound is (one of) my favorite character not so much for his -character-, but for the actor's amazing ability to portray that character.

I was never the biggest, never the strongest. But I was bravest, always.Until I meet pizza man.He comes to gate and I bark and bark and bark.And then man comes and tells me be quiet dog, pizza is delicious and if you are good maybe you will get to eat some pizza crusts, and opens gate for pizza man, and I run away.And then I run back.And pizza man wants to pet me.Now, I have fear.

I think Theon is catching too much hell for his scenes during the second episode. I mean shit, right before Euron attacks his sister is doing everything in her power to taunt him back into being Reek and he's obviously uncomfortable because of it and he still manages to kill more people than any other POV character during the ensuing Melee. Despite the fact that he is CLEARLY still shaken from the previous scene with his sister taunting him. Then when the going gets impossible the previous taunting combined with the horror of having just murdered multiple of his own countrymen(He is still from the Iron Isles), and the fact that he knows for a fact that he can't actually beat everyone and save the day because even if he somehow kills Euron he's still on a ship surrounded by hostiles just takes it's toll on him.

It really does raise a lot of questions about how this stuff's going to play out in the books. In the books, Jorah's not the character who has Greyscale, Ellaria Sand hasn't killed Myrcella (though she still could), and it seems to be pretty important that Jaime thinks Tyrion killed Joffrey. But, perhaps most importantly, when last we left Jaime he felt very differently about Cersei than he currently does on the show.

DM: Alright so we're FINALLY getting the whole party back together so let's see how you measure up to each other. Jon, you're a level 12 fighter.JON: I'm the king of the northDM: You sure are. Bran, you're a level 13 mage.BRAN: i have witnessed the power of nature's simultaneous time cubeDM: Fantastic. Arya, you're a level 15 rogue and you somehow escaped all of the drawbacks of the Nameless Assassin prestige class the but got all the benefits.ARYA: I can kill things that don't exist.DM: Sansa, you're level... 6. At Aristocrat SANSA: IT'S A VALID CLASS DANY IS AN ARISTOCRATDM: Dany is the queen of two countries, has three armies, three dragon followers and a fleet.ARYA: I would have three armies if EVERY ROLL I EVER ROLLED WAS A CRITICAL SUCCESS.DANY: this dragon's called DrogonSANSA: I have a follower! The ballish guy. He's funny.DM: Well you're still doing better than Tyrion who's somehow level 3.TYRION: man i don't need to level up i was born awesomeDM: But anyway this doesn't matter. I'm happy. Because the next three sessions are all army battles and it doesn't matter that you have this Fibonacci sequence of levels somehow.THEON: ok i take my fleet around the -DM: Your fleet sinks.THEON: whatDM: Your sister is kidnapped and you're thrown overboard.THEON: heyDM: You're pulled out by your sister's friends and they all hate you.THEON: I said i was sorry jane asked me out and you said you were over herDM: YOU WASH UP ON THE BEACH AND JON GETS TO SLAP YOU AROUNDJON: yay

GENDRY'S BACK BITCHES AND HE'S GOT A FUCKOFF CARTOON HUGE HAMMER AND SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE "that's not realistically sized" AND I'M LIKE HAVE YOU SEEN HOW FUCKING HANDSOME GENDRY IS MAYBE HE'LL MARRY ARYA AND THEN I CAN DIE HAPPY

Friday wrote:GENDRY'S BACK BITCHES AND HE'S GOT A FUCKOFF CARTOON HUGE HAMMER AND SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE "that's not realistically sized" AND I'M LIKE HAVE YOU SEEN HOW FUCKING HANDSOME GENDRY IS MAYBE HE'LL MARRY ARYA AND THEN I CAN DIE HAPPY

"I thought you'd still be rowing" because they did actually pay attention to everyone complaining about how Gendry's plotline got dropped with him in the middle of the water rowing a boat and he was never heard from again until now.

Gilly wakes up early after a rager and finds Gendry sleeping naked. Missandei is still confused about how dicks work and asks if Gendry's is normal, to which Gilly replies it's unfortunately small before teaching him to compensate.

I've said before that I think, as much as anything, the reason the TV show's still chugging along while the books have stalled is that the TV show gives absolutely zero fucks about how the passage of time works, while Martin is absolutely meticulous in making sure the timeline makes sense and has the unenviable task of trying to balance that with story structure, pacing, and such an absurd number of characters that the show's sprawling cast is streamlined by comparison.

The show's always moved at a pretty good clip (granted, some storylines have stalled out for awhile, like Dany in season 2, or Gendry disappearing for three and a half seasons -- hell, even Bran took an entire season off), but it's never been more evident than it is now. It took four seasons to get through the first three books, and they're the shortest; it got most of the way through the next two books (the longest to date) by the end of season 5. And an episode like tonight's, even at 75 minutes, feels like it's got at least two episodes' worth of story in it. (Coldhands, once again, gets short shrift.)

I kinda feel like maybe the first two episodes of the season shouldn't have spent so much time on table-setting, because this season's ending up even more rear-loaded than usual.

I was getting used to the 'dumb > fight > repeat' episode rotation of the season, but damn if this fight episode wasn't dumb too.

Nothing takes the gas out of the upcoming struggle against an unmanageable foe like suddenly making Snow able to fight a white walker one-on-one with a clear advantage, when last time he was against them a fucking wight was knocking him around like the Hulk trying to pet a rabbit